Tea Party leader South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint is stepping down from his position in the US Senate to take on leadership of the Conservative Heritage Foundation. That itself is kind of strange, since being a US Senator is a Big Huge Deal and being the head of some think tank is only a moderately big deal. But no matter. Since he is leaving office, he needs to be replaced, and that job, in South Carolina, goes to the Governor, Nikki Haley, one of those enigmatically female Republicans. One of the candidates she is apparently considering for the job is Jenny Sanford, the ex wife of Mark Sanford. Remember him? He’s the guy ow disappeared in 2009 while he was governor to visit his mistress in Argentina. That would be funny.

Meanwhile, the Charleston City Paper is running a poll to see who should be selected to fill this seat. The poll is here. Naturally, one of the names proposed in that poll is Stephen Colbert, the TV comedian guy, who happens to be from South Carolina. At present, he has 11% of the vote and as such is in distant second place to Herb Silverman.

Who is Herb Silverman, you may ask? He’s the president of the Secular Coalition for America, and while technically one does not have to be an Atheist to have that job, he is one. And, he has 87% of the vote in the City Paper’s poll!

I understand that the Secular Coalition for America, on Silverman’s behalf, has challenged Colbert to a debate. They are in touch with Colbert via his twitter handle @StephenAtHome and the conversation is happening with the hashtags #SenatorHerb and #senatorcolbert … you might want to go join the fun.

“South Carolina has recently shown itself to be a leader in political diversity, with an Indian-American Governor and the only African-American Republican in Congress,” Dawkins said, according to the Charleston City Paper. “I think the time is now ripe for South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to appoint Herb Silverman as the first acknowledged Jewish Atheist in the United States Senate.”

Comments

people do not now about the USA and the land before we became the USA being primarly a devoted Chritian people who never seperated church from state until a few short years ago. So this being said and done, i would have to say that most of the senate are atheists.

Not really. Kids in school used to learn to read using the Bible becuase there were few textbooks. Even congress approved Bible to use in schools at one time. Now the little atheist bandits want to ban the Bible. A nation once loyal to God is now loyal to satan. My, have times have changed.

There is no middle ground. If you deny God, then you have chosen satan. If you deny satan exists, then Satan wins again becuase his ultimate goal is to get people to deny their Creator. So, by you saying there is no God, you have given satan victory. You have chosen evil over good.

You can only choose one side. There is no middle ground, no negotiations. One way or the other you for God or you are for satan. Which do you choose?

Kevin, Hail Satan!
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”
God is Satan!

LH, that makes sense but how many times does a sitting, elected US Senator move to the private sector, given that there are lots of private sector jobs they could move into? I think it is very rare. And thus, strange (ish).

The level of power he might exercise among the ultraright may actually be higher in that position. Look at Grover Norquist – who ever elected that creature to anything? Yet dozens of elected Senators genuflect at his feet. Look at Rush Limbaugh (if you can stomach the sight). And remember how the Moral Majority [sic] used to make politicians jump through hoops for them? Nice work if you can get it.

how many times does a sitting, elected US Senator move to the private sector

It sometimes happens when a Senator voluntarily retires or is defeated for re-election. But this occurs at the end of a Senator’s term. The unusual thing here is that DeMint is voluntarily leaving the Senate when he has four years remaining in his current term. (Wikipedia tells me that there will be an election in 2014 for the last two years of DeMint’s term, as well as the regularly scheduled election for South Carolina’s other Senate seat.) The usual reason for such a vacancy to occur is that a sitting Senator dies; less frequently, a Senator may be forced to resign due to scandal, or announces he is seriously (and terminally) ill enough that he is no longer able to serve and decides to make way for someone who can.

Contra Jane, I don’t think DeMint expects to increase his de facto political power a la Norquist/Limbaugh/Falwell. He may be right wing to the point of insanity (as would be viewed in a healthy political system, which the US currently is not), but I haven’t seen any evidence that he’s stupid. Any reasonable observer would conclude that there are no longer enough white male votes for a national candidate to win by appealing only to that demographic, and the Republicans have made it hard for themselves to broaden their appeal in the near term. So I think LH is correct in concluding that DeMint is doing this for the money.